Pandora's Box, subtitled A fable from the age of science, is a six part 1992 BBC documentary television series written and produced by Adam Curtis, which examines the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism.

The episodes deal, in order, with communism in The Soviet Union, systems analysis and game theory during the Cold War, economy in the United Kingdom during the 1970s, the insecticide DDT, Kwame Nkrumah's leadership in Ghana during the 1950s and 1960s and the history of nuclear power.

Curtis' later series The Century of the Self and The Trap had similar themes.



The full list of films by Adam Curtis is available here.


This movie is part of the collection: Community Video

Producer: Adam Curtis
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: adam curtis; technology; cold war; consumerism; game theory

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Reviewer: bhyder - - November 28, 2010
Subject: good
yes, its good

Reviewer: LibrivoxOrgFan - - November 18, 2010
Subject: a great documentary by the guy behind The Power of Nightmares
This documentary shows a bunch of megalomaniacs who smugly thought their rationality was infallible. The series suggests that 1. the social effects of technology cannot be known beforehand & 2. traditional power structures will control the application of new technologies.

Episode 1 is about the collapse of Soviet technological optimism, and how Stalin et al killed the actual technicians when they became too powerful.
Episode 2 is about the Cold War as a game, how the Rand Corporation helped perpetuate the Cold War. Their hand in the Vietnam War is especially scary. The science fiction fan will appreciate this episode because it shows scifi author Jerry Pournelle showing a bit of his own megalomania (and bloodlust) speaking about advising Reagan on Star Wars; author Larry Niven is shown but not heard sitting with Pournelle.
Episode 3 is about the British trying to revitalize their economy by manipulating it during the 70's.
Episode 4 is about DDT and how entomologists were bought by dow chemicals. How Darwin has been misappropriated.
Episode 5 is about Ghana getting screwed by foreign companies and governments. Sorry Kwame Nkrumah!
Episode 6 is about how GE and ConEdison brought bad things to life, putting profit before safety, and how they created the China Syndrome.

Add to this the ignorance and political manipulation of the people by a narrative of fear, a whole lot of self- centered people who are too sure they've delineated rationality, good music, a cat in space and an old guy who licks some DDT. What a sweet documentary!

Each episode can be watched independently.